shelter procedure

I am loving a new series of podcasts called ‘Human Animal Science’ which are animal welfare’y, science’y and Australian based. It is hosted by Tim Adams and Mia Cobb, and if you’re a regular reader of this blog, the show will almost certainly give you a thrill too! Some of the show’s other topics […]

Oh no. Thousands of pets across the country could be walking around with microchips that do not work. Without a functioning microchip, enabling pets to be electronically identified, lost animals may never be returned to their owners. One WA veterinary surgeon said in the past month he’s had about six pets come in with faulty […]

I’ve been on holidays for the last week and a half in Bali and had a great time hanging out with Hubby and The Toddler by the pool. However, with practically no internet (yay!) I’m a bit behind on the blog (less yay), so thought I’d do a quick round up today and revisit some […]

In the late 1970’s in Victoria, debate raged over the killing of pound animals using a machine known as a ‘Lethanair’ chamber. The ‘Lethanair’ machine was a decompression chamber, which allowed the bulk killing of dogs. Today, we consider decompression as an unacceptable method of euthanasia, as these chambers were designed to produce decompression […]

Bali cat – image Flickr blueparadiseindonesia I’m in Bali at the moment, and spent a few hours last night watching the little resort beach cats do their thing. In Australia we kill cats for being ownerless. I wondered what the Bali cats would think of our ‘welfare’ ideal that a stray cats’ life is a […]

The RSPCA NSW killed 8,209 of the 20,959 dogs (~40%) it took in in the 2010/11 year. It also killed 13,031 of the 20,703 cats (~60%). They assure us, they ‘had’ to be killed. From their Twitter; @RSPCANSW we r failing 2 put dangerous dogs out into the community & failing 2 put other dogs […]

Australian animal lovers are often berated with the idea that people in the United Kingdom are more ‘responsible’ and that we Aussies are all to be blamed for our high pound kill rates. It is also often purported that the pet industry in the UK is less ‘saturated’ and that thanks to their more ‘responsible’ […]

– a lack of positive marketing of individual pets – an inconvenient location, or opening hours – refusing to release pets to community rescue groups – a lack of rehabilitation programs for common behaviour and health issues – failures to reunited lost pets and owners – poor disease control procedures – a poorly run, or […]

The RSPCA NSW has a problem – between the months of September to April, their pounds fill to bursting with the offspring of the unowned cat population. So enormous is this problem that of the 20,703 cats admitted to RSPCA NSW shelters, 13,031 (about 65%) we’re killed. Of these cats, 80% were killed for being […]